AN: Woohoo! 40 chapters! I've never reached this milestone before, so I am a really happy girl today! :)
Chapter 40 The Unbreakable Bond
Roy and Celia followed Marcus as he led them through winding dirt passageways. Celia herself felt...uh, claustrophobic in this area. It almost felt like the walls were closing in, tempted to crush her bones and smush her organs. Logically, she knew that wasn't the case, but still. Her stomach squirmed like there was no tomorrow.
She kept her eyes glued to Marcus' shell. She wondered what the deal was with Kamark. He had said that he knew her father and just...vanished? And he told the Starbite Society to never speak of her father even when he himself was absent from the room? This was beyond bizarre. It was beyond weird. It was beyond strange. She wanted to ask more. She probably should ask more. However, her mind was so overloaded with questions that it locked her mouth up, paralyzed her tongue. So, she just remained silent.
After a lengthy walk, Marcus opened up a door. Actually, it really wasn't a door so much as a gate made out of wood. On the other side was a rectangular room. A collection of circular tables were illuminated by the orange candlelight. Each table had a stone carved into the shape of a star acting as a centerpiece, and within each star was a long, tall, elegant candlestick, glowing with purple fire as opposed to orange.
"This is the dining room," said Marcus. "We each have assigned seats." He pointed toward the table in the center of the room. "I sit at the table with Kamark." He pointed toward a table in the left hand corner. "That table right there is typically unoccupied. I think you two should be assigned to sit there. After all, we wouldn't want to separate good friends."
With that, Marcus stepped into the room, heading toward another gate on the opposite side. He gestured for Roy and Celia to follow. They did after exchanging a sort of apprehensive look. Marcus led them down the candle lit hallway.
"The candles are always burning, in case you're wondering. They have to; they are our only source of light in this hideout." He turned a corner and pointed toward a set of steps, leading deep down into a dark, enclosed space. "Don't let the darkness frighten you; that is actually our storage area. We keep food, clothing, our water supply….we keep it all down there. Typically, Kamark is the only one allowed to go down into that room."
Celia felt like she had swallowed a boulder. She really didn't know what to think about Kamark. He left such a horrible first impression that hearing his name be mentioned put a bitter taste in the hybrid's mouth. If he didn't know who her father was, she wouldn't bother with him or his stupid society. She didn't mention that to Marcus though; just remained silent and followed after him.
Finally, Marcus took Roy and Celia to a dead end hallway. It seemed to stretch on for at least a mile; it was that long. Littered along the walls were doorways, ones that had actual doors as opposed to just gates. Celia and Roy peaked into one room and saw a bed in the room, along with a collection of various personal items.
"This is the place where the Society members sleep. We are quite a large society, so the hallway is long nowadays." Marcus grinned. "The hallway can actually shrink or grow depending on Kamark's desire for new recruitments."
Roy's eyes grew wide. "Woah! That's cool!"
"Yes. Whenever someone leaves the society, their bedroom disappears." Marcus' face fell. "Well, there is one exception to that rule."
He gestured for Roy and Celia to follow him. Celia noticed that each room had a nameplate, indicating exactly which Society member slept where. When they got to the halfway point of the hallway, the place where the number of rooms was split right down the middle, Marcus stopped. He gestured toward one room. When Celia saw the nameplate, her heart skipped a beat.
"This was my Dad's room?" she asked, more to herself than to anyone else in the room.
Marcus opened the door. A gust of sorts swept Celia's hair back. It was cold in that room, as cold as the dead of winter. It was also dark, pitch black, as a matter of fact. Marcus stepped into the room and lit the candles along the walls. This allowed her to get a glance at the items scattered throughout the room's interior.
Right on the right hand wall was a set of weights. Dumbbells, Celia believed the correct term. They were arranged in order of weight; five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty….and it stopped there. They were arranged on a little tray, as if they were sacred artifacts to the person who had used them.
"Hey, look at this."
Celia turned toward Roy. He was leaning down right next to a bedside table, and he had the drawer opened. Celia made her way over and looked down into the drawer. There waa what appeared to be sheet music, and notes scattered throughout the page. Stapled to that paper was a poem of sorts. A song, possibly?
The moon will shine eternally
The world will spin eternally
The wind will blow eternally
And I will question eternally
.
Where am I going?
What can I do?
Where is the place that I should
Lay my next step?
.
What is my purpose?
What is the path?
Is there a right path?
Is there a right place to go?
Celia pushed that song to the side, onto the bed. She looked down at other things; another picture. This one was extremely interesting, as not only did it show Singe, but he had his arm wrapped around Kamark's shoulder. Almost as if they were...buddies? Also, who was that other magikoopa, the magikoopa in the golden robe, on Singe's right?
There were too many questions swirling around in Celia's mind. She just couldn't let all of them go unanswered. She turned toward Marcus. "Marcus, who…?"
"That is Kam; Kamark's brother and cofounder of the society." The koopa trooper's face sunk into a grim, sullen expression. "They were good friends, all three of them."
Celia's curiosity was piqued. "Why? What was so special about my Dad?"
Marcus sniffed. "I told you; I'm forbidden to talk about it."
Celia's face fell. "Ah. Yes, of course." She laid the photo down and turned toward Roy, who was holding a book of Singe's open and upside down. Celia took the book, and her heart stopped. It was The Unbreakable Bond. It was a piece of Classic Mushroom Kingdom literature that told a tale of a girl who fell into a forbidden love, and thus, sacrificed everything for the sake of it. Celia knew the story very well. It was the same story her mother read to her when she was a little girl, when she was tucked into her bed at night and trying to battle ever strengthening drowsiness.
"I haven't seen this book in forever," she said softly. She flipped to the climax, the emotional confrontation where the girl ended up sacrificing her life. She read it through, and she shed tears that she hadn't shed in years. These were tears she thought she would never shed again.
"I can't believe my dad likes this story," she said as she closed the book.
Marcus rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, he would not shut up about it. Said someone very special introduced him to it."
Celia's heart stopped. Could that someone special be her mom? Did...did her father keep a hold of that one part of the relationship, one part to act as a reminder that he and Ruby Patch had been star-crossed lovers?
"Ehh. That story is a little too sappy for my taste," said Roy. He got up and looked down at the bed. "That's one scratchy blanket."
Celia pulled her eyes away from the book. Roy was right; the blanket appeared as scratchy as they came. She put her and on it, and she almost got a rash on her palm.
She loved this material. She used to sleep with blankets like these, blankets her mother had knit for her specifically. She always viewed it as a sort of protection method. Sure, the blanket was scratchy, but it was also warm. It kept one warm, and it allowed a little girl to sleep in peace knowing that a tone who tried to touch her would have to endure a strong bout of pain in order to do so.
Maybe Ruby had knit a blanket like this for Singe. Maybe...maybe this was that blanket? Considering he kept The Unbreakable Bond, she wouldn't put it past him.
"This is…" Celia didn't even know what to say. This room was her father's. He walked on this very floor, slept in this very bed. It almost felt like she was interacting with a part of history. Her history. She could almost feel her father's presence.
"Yeah," said Roy. He got up. "Singe was an interesting guy."
Marcus nodded. "Yes. He was." He was silent for a few minutes before sighing. "Okay. Now, I would recommend that you put this stuff back. We technically are not permitted to be in here."
So, Roy and Celia did just that. Once they finished, they all exited the room. Marcus shut the door behind them and looked at a watch on his wrist.
"It's getting late," he said. "It is almost time for the other Society members to turn in for the night. We will discuss this more in the morning."
"Uh, okay," said Roy. He looked confused. "But...we need places to sleep, don't we?"
Marcus was about to say something when, in the wall parallel to Singe's wall, two doors magically appeared. Roy's eyes bulged out of their sockets while Marcus laughed.
"I told you; the hall shrinks and grows based on Kamark's desires. You can decide amongst yourselves which room you will have."
With that, Marcus left. While Celia wasn't happy with holding this conversation off for later, she had to admit that she was tired. Besides, Marcus had promised her that she would get answers from Kamark pretty soon.
So, she selected the room on the right. She bid Roy good night, and he did the same thing after hesitating a little. Celia shut the door, rubbed her eyes, and got in the bed. She will worry about her problems tomorrow. Right now, she just wanted to sleep.